IT sector ‘faces skills gap’

An expert has warned that Britain's IT firms are struggling to attract sufficient numbers of capable employees, despite the much-publicised problems currently facing graduate job hunters.

Richard Nott, director of specialist recruitment website CWJobs.co.uk, claimed that although many newcomers to the employment market are having a particularly hard time finding work, computing businesses are experiencing a talent shortfall.

"The underlying trend is that there is still a gap of graduates coming out of university that have the right skill sets to go into the world of working within IT," he explained. "We still haven't got enough people coming into IT."

Mr Nott added that many people looking for jobs have been forced to consider switching to industries outside of their preferred line of work, but implied that more needs to be done to boost Britain's technology sector.

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His comments came after figures released by the Higher Education Careers Services Unit showed that 16.3 per cent of IT graduates found themselves unemployed in 2009, up from 13.7 per cent the year before.

Posted by Ross George